1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a firearm. The weapon can be heavy, medium-weight, or light-weight, and automatic, semi-automatic, or single-loading. It will, however, preferably employ a magazine and have a locked or delayed slide. The barrel is preferably provided with a chamber accommodating a cartridge that comprises case, bullet, charge, and primer. The barrel can, however, also be employed for ammunition without a cartridge. The rear end of the barrel is directly adjacent to the frontmost point traveled by the slide. The slide travels back and forth inside the weapon's housing. The outside of the barrel is fastened directly or by way of an intermediary to the housing. The intermediary can be in one or more parts, concentric cylinders for example, and have a central perforation, whereby the rear of the barrel is secured in the perforation and whereby the rear end of the barrel is directly adjacent to the frontmost point traveled by a slide which travels back and forth inside the weapon's housing and the outside of the barrel is fastened directly or by way of an intermediary to a housing.
All terminology relating herein to direction relates to the direction traveled by the bullet with the weapon horizontal.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
All known firearms occasionally malfunction due to gas unpredictedly escaping into the housing from the barrel. An obstruction in the bore for example can increase the pressure of the gas and split the cartridge case or primer compartment. A defective and too wide primer channel can force gas directly into the housing or prematurely retract the slide, allowing gas in. Again, a foreign body, the nose of the next cartridge for example, can set off the cartridge already in the chamber when the slide closes too slowly. A cartridge can enter and jam the chamber as a result of malfunction when a hot weapon is shot, and can ignite due to the heat. Finally, the powder may not bum all at once but generate a succession of rapid pressure peaks that open the slide before burnout has progressed sufficiently.
Common to all these admittedly rare occurrences is the escape of highly compressed gas into the area inside the housing and immediately behind the rear end of the barrel. The gas primarily acts on the walls of the housing at that point, although also on the slide and other components. The housing will buckle out as a result. The slide, any mechanisms intended to absorb the shock or accommodate the impact of the backward-traveling slide, and other components as well can be damaged. Finally, the shooter himself can be injured.
Such occurrences can to some extent be prevented by increasing the strength of the involved components, the housing for example. The result, however, is a heavier and more expensive weapon.
The object of the present invention is to improve a firearm of the aforesaid genus.